And it is accordant with this presumption,
that the men who have made the most important positive additions to
philosophy, such as Descartes, Spinoza, and Kant, not to mention more
recent examples, have been deeply imbued with the spirit of physical
science; and, in some cases, such as those of Descartes and Kant, have
been largely acquainted with its details. On the other hand, the founder
of Positivism no less admirably illustrates the connexion of scientific
incapacity with philosophical incompetence. In truth, the laboratory is
the fore-court of the temple of philosophy; and whoso has not offered
sacrifices and undergone purification there, has little chance of
admission into the sanctuary.
Obvious as these considerations may appear to be, it would be wrong to
ignore the fact that their force is by no means universally admitted. On
the contrary, the necessity for a proper psychological and physiological
training to the student of philosophy is denied, on the one hand, by the
"pure metaphysicians," who attempt to base the theory of knowing upon
supposed necessary and universal truths, and assert that scientific
observation is impossible unless such truths are already known or
implied: which, to those who are not "pure metaphysicians," seems very
much as if one should say that the fall of a stone cannot be observed,
unless the law of gravitation is already in the mind of the observer.
On the other hand, the Positivists, so far as they accept the teachings
of their master, roundly assert, at any rate in words, that observation
of the mind is a thing inherently impossible in itself, and that
psychology is a chimera--a phantasm generated by the fermentation of the
dregs of theology.
Pages:
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68